Effects of Speaking Style and Context on Online Word Recognition in Adults and Young Children

• Free
• Science & Health

Abstract: Previous research has found that Clear Speech (CS) improves intelligibility for adults (e.g. Smiljanic & Bradlow, 2009) and that Infant Directed Speech (IDS) aids perception and development for children (e.g. Cooper & Aslin, 1994). These listener-oriented speaking styles are similar, but differ in terms of exact acoustic characteristics and (positive) affect. It is not known whether listener-oriented speaking styles enhance intelligibility in general, or if only IDS features are beneficial to young children. Additionally, listeners rely on contextual information (lexical, semantic, and syntactic) when decoding a message (Nittrouer & Boothroyd, 1990). This project investigates how clarity of the speech signal interacts with availability of contextual cues for adults as well as younger listeners, by looking at time course differences in online word recognition for different speaking styles and semantic context.